By Vickie Aldous
Ashland Daily Tidings
Wearing a necklace of turquoise from India and with three stripes painted on her chin as a mark of her Native American tribal heritage, Agnes Baker Pilgrim recently recounted her fall trip to visit the Dalai Lama.
Audience members at a Southern Oregon University housing complex listened as she told of flying to India, riding a bus up a steep mountain road and climbing stairs that stretched up to a temple. Inside was Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader.
“He carries so much peace and love in him,” Baker Pilgrim said. “The ambiance around him just washed over me and this flow of peace came over me and I immediately felt blessed. I was in the presence of someone who really walked his talk.” Several years ago, Baker Pilgrim, a member of the Takelma tribe who lives west of Grants Pass, gave a blessing for a condor reintroduction program in Oregon and was given condor feathers. She took one of the feathers to the Dalai Lama and he used it in a prayer.
Baker Pilgrim traveled to India in the company of 12 other women who make up the International Council of 13 Indigenous Grandmothers. The council first convened in 2004 in New York state. It includes elders from the Arctic Circle region, Tibet and Nepal, Africa and North, South and Central America. They share concerns about the environment, poverty, war, materialism and the exploitation of indigenous peoples, according to the new book “Grandmothers Counsel the World: Women Elders Offer Their Vision for Our Planet” by Carol Schaefer.
“I’ve been touring the world being a voice for the voiceless for years,” Baker Pilgrim said. “Now to have 12 other voices joining me is amazing.” During the women’s visit with the Dalai Lama, he talked about the role of grandmothers and the need for grandmothers around the world to come together. He said they are the carriers of wisdom and the givers of life, Baker Pilgrim recalled.
She said that the grandmothers were honored when Tibetan monks asked them for blessings.
But they also saw heartbreaking scenes during their visit.
A group of 2,000 orphaned children performed for the Dalai Lama and met the women.
“Here they are with no mom and dad,” Baker Pilgrim said. “Many of them wrote us notes saying, ‘I would like you to be my grandmother because I have no grandmother.'” While in India, they heard that people had been killed trying to escape from Tibet. Baker Pilgrim said families have been separated, with some members living inside Tibet and some in other countries.
The grandmothers have plans for even more trips around the globe and are continuing work on multiple issues.
During their visit with the Dalai Lama, they asked him for help in getting an audience with the Pope.
Baker Pilgrim said they want to ask the Pope to rescind a 1493 edict that authorized taking land from indigenous people and killing them if they were not Christians. They have not yet received word if the Dalai Lama will send a letter to the Pope in support of their cause.
Baker Pilgrim said she is confident the Pope will listen to their request if they can just visit him.
“I can’t see the Pope shutting the door on 13 grandmothers,” she said. “If we get the door open, we’ve got it made.”
Staff writer Vickie Aldous can be reached at 479-8199 or vlaldous@yahoo.com.
